rainbow of the night - spread thee wings and cast upon thee the dust of cookies and cakes

Thursday, September 15, 2005

6$ an hour

There is posting in the kitchen here at beige that states that minimum wage is 6 dollars an hour in NYC. So an 8 hour day gets you 48$ (minus taxes). Now think about how long it would take you at your job to make $48. Probably a couple hours or less, right? NO ONE can live in this city making 48$ a day, unless you live outdoors, right, or maybe in your car? it's crazy. i just read that the min. wage is being raised to 6.75$ on jan 1, 2006. great. This country is so messed up. Seriously fucked.

7 comments:

On "30 Days," Morgan Spurlock (from "Super Size Me" fame) and his girlfriend lived on minimum wage for a month in Columbus, Ohio. The stress of it seriously strained their relationship. The good news is that they couldn't actually find minimum-wage jobs, a fact that conservative critics made hay with. I guess there aren't many such jobs to be had out there, especially if you're an educated white guy. (I suspect there are plenty to choose from if you're a recent immigrant, or poor black, hispanic, etc.)

i heard about this - it's a tv show, right? i think i saw him on the daily show or conan maybe.

i think about this 6$ thing because the beige has a rotating set of janitor people who are always in the kitchen tidying and cleaning up and they are friendly and nice and then i look at that sign and wonder how much they are being paid. it has to be more than 6 right? i do know that starting "salary" at white castle is 7/hr. it says so on their marquis.

Besides New York and SF, the absolute worst places for the working poor that I have seen I've seen are the resort areas of this country, Aspen, Key West, Monterey. The cost of property is pushed way beyond affordability for even the middle class. It is complete Brazilification. Everyone I met in Key West had three jobs, all paid around 5 bucks an hour. Rents were only slightly lower than Manhattan. The ones who gave up and dropped out usually made their living by preying on the drunken tourists. Very similar to the French Quarter in that respect.